“I believe” in getting started

This summer was a whirlwind of activity and trust in God’s will. It began with meeting with Matt to talk more in detail about CCFM and all that had happened while Kyle and I had been in Canada.  We were in the end work of obtaining non-profit status and Matt was beginning to set up meeting with churches that were interested in working with us. All of it involved a lot of trust in where God was leading us (and many trips from Houston to College Station). By the end of the summer we had non-profit status, three parishes, and six ministries! So then the ever daunting question of, “Now what??” began to enter my mind.
I was selected to run the middle school ministries at two of the parishes, we named these ministries ‘Ignite’. I then had to begin thinking about what my ministries were going to look like. Since the USCCB pretty much set out what each year should focus on I had some sort of guideline, but I soon came to realize that the topics of Jesus and the Church are incredibly broad (duh…)! Luckily Matt was one step ahead of me and had found a book he liked that was approved by the Catholic bishops. The book was great, it was simple yet interesting and offered a lot of information to teach on. But then came the problem of how to present the information. From my own personal experience I knew that giving the kids a book and reading through it not only made “class” boring, but there was also no interest or motivation to learn in that environment. They go to school five days a week, they don’t want to make it six.  So how do I get them motivated, excited, and teach them all at the same time?
From going through high school with the LifeTeen model at my church I knew that it was a way to get them excited, but we wanted to be CCFM, not LifeTeen. So what does that mean? Apparently it means a lot of work! So I began to do just that. Looking at our book for the year I noticed that the beginning sections broke up the Trinity using the Creed and had a chapter or two on each section. Immediately I loved the idea. What better way to start off teaching them what we believe by teaching them what they are saying when they say, “I believe…” every Sunday at mass!
I took the Nicene Creed and broke it up into eleven sections to use for my nights. Then I took the book and found the chapters that covered that topic. Example, the first part of the Creed says, “I believe in God the Father…”, and so we had a night on God the Father. The next week was, “Maker of Heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible…”, so we had a night on creation and the Human Person, etc..  (Of course I had to begin with the history of the Creed and what it was, it’s such a cool story! Santa Clause punched Arius in the face!) After connecting them all on paper, I had to create the actual lessons. I am blessed to have an organized roommate and coworker (Alyssa) who had already created an outline for her nights that she let me use. Creating the lessons meant that I had to read the chapter(s) that covered that topic and summarize them so they could be used for the talk. Then I found or created an activity or game that connected to open the night, as well as small group questions for after the talk, and a closing prayer activity to wrap it all together.  Most of my nights consisted of this format, although there were a few changes based on what we were talking about (for the line “For our sake he was crucified/under Pontius Pilate,/he suffered death and was buried…” we had a night on the Pascal Mystery, focusing on the death of Jesus and the personal redemption we gained from it and we did the entire night in the chapel!).  Throughout all of this I gained a new found respect for teachers who also create lesson plans, it was a lot of work!! Honestly, it is waaaayy more work than I was expecting it to be. It’s exciting every week to see it come to life though!
By doing a semester on the Creed I hope to give the youth a new found understanding of their faith. How many of us go to mass and stumble through the Creed (especially now with the new translation!) and never stop to think, what are actually saying “I believe” to? Could everyone is mass tell you what it means when they say “I believe”, do they know all the information, history, and loving redemption are in those lines? My hope is that when my youth are in mass and they begin to say each line, they will remember each night; remember and BELIEVE in what they are professing as their faith. My hope is that they will begin to see why we profess our faith in mass, and begin to desire to know why we do/say other parts as well. And my hope above all hopes is that they will take their “I believe” and make it their own, discovering a new personal faith and a deep desire to know more about the God who loves them and desires their faith so that He can show them how much He believes in them.